Assignment #4

That was the longest English poem I have ever read in my life. I never heard about the author, still less his poem. Also, I’m not a Christian so I don’t know much about the Bible. Therefore, the most difficult part for me is he used many quotes from the Bible I don’t understand.  After that, I search for his life then I knew he was a revolutionary. The purpose he wrote this poem was against the Catholic church, and break the chain of thought. Due to the Catholic church had a monopoly on the exegesis of the Bible, the common people had to accept their explanation and buy indulgences to redeem themselves. On the surface, the Catholic Church is an agent of God, but in reality, it is just a predatory organization. Base on this background, popular discontent with the Catholic Church eventually led to the Reformation and the Renaissance to strive for the right of everyone to read the Bible for themselves. During the Scientific Revolution and  Enlightenment, thanks to the increase in literacy, everyone is able to understand the Bible for themselves. In Pope’s poem, he mentions the universe is God’s masterwork, the human should study and explore as much as we can to get closer and closer to God. The most impressed me are “See worlds on worlds compose one universe” and “Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heaven in fault.” Before the Enlightenment, I think nobody can say human is perfect because this is too arrogant, only God is perfect in the world. Now we have more and more confidence to learn more science. I think scientific exploration is a double-edged sword which is could benefit people or hurt. The boundaries of science is we should’t cross the line between life and death. For example Cloning technology, immortality research, DNA reshape and so on. I believe death is treasure of the nature world.